6/26/15

Check out master animator Aaron Blaise's new set of Video Tutorials on the 12 Principles of Animation , using TVPaint. (this is really good stuff , whether you're using TVPaint or not ... it's not software specific , it's all about basic principles . Highly recommended) .

Here's a free sample of one of Aaron's animation tutorials using TVPaint:

8/11/14

"Rough Tie Down Animation for the direct to video Feature film 'The Legend of Smurfy Hollow', done for Sony Pictures Animation and The Spa Studios.All work has been done by Pablo Navarro except by the layout clips. Enjoy!"

1/4/14

A 2.5min film for TSB - commissioned by JOINT LONDON - about the
Reverend Henry Duncan and the history behind the building of the TSB
bank. Combining the hand crafted artistry of 2D character animation
within a stunningly integrated use of 3D CGI sets, The journey through
time is reflected in the film's opening shot; an unbroken take which
lasts a whopping 95 seconds...

4/30/13

The first 00:31 seconds of Pablo Navarro's demo reel has a scene from the short film "OA" (produced by TigoboAnimation) which was animated using TVPaint Animation:
Here is another short piece of animation by Pablo Navarro , for a RAID commercial , animated using TVPaint :

7/11/12

The filmmaker , Ghislain Avrillon , writes of "Ad Lucem" :
"It is a traditional 2D animation (ie animated frame by frame by hand). In detail, I did not draw on paper but on a graphics tablet with TVPaint software, a powerful digital tool for traditional technique."

Rough animation by Pablo Navarro from the short film "Venus and the Sun". Animated boar creature combined with live action. Animation drawn with Wacom Cintiq 21ux tablet in the paperless animation application TVPaint Animation 9.5.
Go to Pablo Navarro's blog http://pablonavarro.wordpress.com to see his WIP rough tests with tie-downs.

A paperless animation line test animated by Rasmus Norgaard using "Mirage" (aka "TVPaint v. 7.0" , the predecessor to the current version of TVPaint Animation) . This was animated with a Wacom Intous 3 tablet. It was originally posted on the old Mirage User forums.

Also see this earlier post on the blog about the paperless animation process used by the Norwegian animation studio Sandes Media on their series of children's films for Norwegian TV based on the songs of folk singer Alf Prøysen -

Here's a progression reel showing a shot from the Alf Prøysen series from "pencil test" to final color . This is all paperless , made in TVPaint:

This shows this scene in the TVPaint interface:

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Rusty Mills is a classically trained animator who has been on the forefront of embracing the new paperless animation technology . Here are some scenes from Rusty's work-in-progress reel for a film he is making called "Gotcha Covered".

Rusty is animating this film on a Motion Computing tablet PC using Mirage.(a previous version of TVPaint which is no longer available, but similar to the present TVPaint Animation).

He did most of this animation while commuting on the train into Los Angeles . Now that's a portable animation tool !

Notice how Rusty's rough animation looks virtually the same as traditional pencil-on-paper animation. There is no discernible difference in this that screams out "digital". The drawings look very natural and organic, like real pencil sketches.

7/20/11

Bold colors and playful visual rhythms merge in Anton Setola’s Jazzed, a film animated in TVP Animation. Finished in 2008, Jazzed had a long festival run and was posted on-line yesterday by the filmmaker.

For Eleanor, the joy of living among other people is out of reach because of her extreme introversion, she shuts herself away in a depressive routine, with her cat as her only support, until the latter, hopeless for her, decides to leave home...

So the animation is actually hand-drawn, but paperless , drawn in TVP Animation using Wacom tablets. BG's were painted in Photoshop. (although they could have used TVP Animation to paint the fully-rendered BG's as well)

"...based on the songs of famed Norwegian singer/songwriter Alf Prøysen (1914 – 1970). The series is hand-drawn, made in-house by me and my five collegues. The episodes are short “music-videos” following Prøysens original recordings. We’re very passionate about our work, trying to master the medium of traditional 2D animation.”

Trailer for the television series:

Line test of a scene animated paperlessly in TVP Animation:

Making-of progression video showing line test to final color:

It's interesting that for publicity purposes in the making-of video (above) they have taken steps to disguise the digital origins of the drawings by adding some fake "flipping paper" effects to the animation.

I think I understand why this is done for the general public consumption: the minute you tell non-animation people "we used a digital program to do the animation" many people have this crazy idea stuck in their head : "ah-ha, the computer does it all" , as if the someone simply types in a command and pushes a button , then the computer program animates the scene. Whereas people still understand that if something is hand-drawn an artist is responsible for creating it.

It is difficult for many people to grasp the idea that there can be hand-drawn animation made on a computer , which is virtually the same process as hand-drawn animation on paper, except the lines are drawn directly into a program like TVP Animation using a wacom tablet, instead of drawn on paper and scanned/photographed.

Hand-drawn , in TVP Animation.

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Some additional comments from the director/lead animator, Hans Jorgen Sandes, were posted on the TVP Animation Community User Forum:

I'm so glad you're using this on the TVPaint page. Because, it's ALL sketched, animated and coloured in TVPaint. The backgrounds are PhotoShop, and the composite is in AppleMotion. We're working on the subject of painting the backgrounds in TVP as well. The composite is very minimal, and AppleMotion works great with FinalCut.

Since others are so interested in our process, I will make a post on how we're working. I'll also include how the animation is actually done in the TVP software. I'll post it on your forum and my blog.

Anyway, feel free to share this information : ) Looking forward to hear from you again!

All the best,

Hans

As promised the lead animator/ director of this piece, Hans J. Sandnes has provided a behind-the-scenes glimpse at their work process using TVP Animation at his studio Sandnes Media.

He writes:

"We're a small team: an animator, an inbetweener, a background-artist, a compositor , and a producer. Using TVPaint means we're still making hundreds of unique drawings. We're sketching, erasing and re-doing drawings. But we don't have to spend time on scanning the drawings, numbering them, line-testing them and archiving them. In a way, TVPaint helps us doing what we like. And takes away the unnecessary steps.